MLB.com: How do you think the writers are going to handle you and the players of your era who are [linked] to performance-enhancing drugs?

Bonds: You have to vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on. If you vote on your assumptions or what you believe or what you think might have been going on there, that’s your problem. You’re at fault. It has nothing to do with what your opinion is. Period. If that’s the case, you better go way, way back and start thinking about your opinions. If that’s how you feel life should be run, I would say then you run your Hall of Fame the way you want to run your Hall of Fame. That’s what I think. That’s my personal opinion. If you want to do the Hall of Fame the way the Hall of Fame is supposed to be done, then you make the right decision on that. If you don’t, that’s on you. To stamp something on your assumptions, it doesn’t work for me.

MLB.com: What are your thoughts on how the Clemens trial wound up?

Bonds: I was overwhelmed with happiness for Roger. Very happy. Roger is a great athlete and a great pitcher. I think Roger Clemens is telling the truth, and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. He’s acquitted. Now everyone leave him alone, let him be. He went through the system just as I did and he deserves respect and forgiveness and move on. We have sacrificed our lives and bodies for this game. We have beat our bodies up for something that we love to do. OK? They accused him. They accuse whoever. Who cares? He was acquitted. He deserves the same rights everyone else does. And he deserves the same respect he’s always had. I love him. He was one of the greatest pitchers I’ve ever faced. He’s always been a good friend of mine. I will go to the end of the earth for that man.

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MLB.com: It's hard to believe that it's been five years since your run at Aaron.

Bonds: It seems like it was right around the corner.

It seems to me like it was 40 years ago. I don't know why.

MLB.com: How do you think the writers are going to handle you and the players of your era who are [linked] to performance-enhancing drugs?

Bonds: You have to vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on.

You can't argue with that logic, people.

MLB.com: You talked to the Giants about possibly coming back as a coach. What do you envision your role might be for the organization?

Bonds: I'd just like to do what I'm trained to do, and that's teach players how to hit. I'm an expert at it. I am one of the best experts you will ever find in this game, and I would love to teach professionals about something I'm an expert at doing.

I have no doubt Bonds knows the technical and mental aspects of hitting as well as anyone. Whether he can effectively teach that, I don't know but I'd give him a try.

If he came back to the Giants as a coach, let's say they are down a run in the late innings and get runners on 1st and second for the pitcher's spot. I still have the feeling that Bonds is the best option on your bench, even at age 48.

If he came back to the Giants as a coach, let's say they are down a run in the late innings and get runners on 1st and second for the pitcher's spot. I still have the feeling that Bonds is the best option on your bench, even at age 48.

Would be a good way to push back the HoF vote, wouldn't it? But they need to do it now (or maybe on September 1st, once the roster limits are off). Not just for the HoF, but for the Giants' pennant race chances...

He missed winning four MVPs in a row in Pittsburgh by a hair (he won three, finished 15 points behind Pendleton in 1991).

He won four in a row with the Giants, plus four other top-five finishes in the MVP voting.

Dock him 250 HRs. Dock him 500 RBIs. 1,000 walks. Half his MVPs. Half of his eight gold gloves. Half of his 12 Silver Slugger Awards. Half of his 15 All Star Game appearances. How much of his success can one fairly attribute to PED use?!

A stint as a Spring Training Coach might be a good way for Bonds and the Giants to gauge his coaching ability, as well as interest in a full-time job.

TFA:

MLB.com: You don't want to coach on a day-to-day basis do you?

Bonds: No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be on the bus every day. I don't mind doing it once in a while. I don't mind going sometimes, but I don't want to go on the day-to-day grind. My mind could change when I start doing something. Maybe the guys might need me more out there. It's going to be based on how it is. I'm not begging for a job. If they don't like what I'm doing then get rid of me. I'm just saying that it would be a shame for what I know, to what I can give, to what I can offer, to let it go to waste or for me to get too old so I can't offer it anymore.

So, he's claiming that he doesn't want a full-time job. (While simultaneously suspecting that he wouldn't really be satisfied with part-time, which I bet is correct.)

Walt Davis is posting on BBTF the way BBTF needs to be posted on. Too long for a screen name.

So he's saying it should just go on some strict basis like the LPGA hall of fame?

Who knows? He might be making the same point as #10 -- i.e. he's one of the best players in history, they can't deny that. Or "everybody knows I'm a HoFer so their opinion doesn't matter." Or he might mean it in reference to the assumptions some make about who did steroids, how much they helped, whether they constitute "cheating", etc.

Dock him 250 HRs. Dock him 500 RBIs. 1,000 walks. Half his MVPs. Half of his eight gold gloves. Half of his 12 Silver Slugger Awards. Half of his 15 All Star Game appearances. How much of his success can one fairly attribute to PED use?!

But it's not about "docking" him for the steroids. I've always thought the "Well, he was a Hall of Famer in 1999" argument missed the point. People feel he cheated the game and that's why some will never vote for him - if you subscribe to that mentality, whether it happened for the first time in 1986, 1991, 2001 or 2006 is irrelevant. I am not saying I necessarily agree with this - but that's the prevailing mentality of those who won't vote for him.

Bonds: I got a ball and I hit it, so in that way there's nothing I would have done differently. As far as handling the media, I would have done a lot of things differently. The character I created on the field was a different person than the way I was off the field. It was that person that made me perform. It gave me the push to perform. Whether you hated me or loved me, you came to see that person or that show. And with the media, I needed space. When the first thing that happens after you get to the clubhouse every day is questions about the chase or how you feel, I'll admit it now that it was hard for me to deal with and I could've done it a lot better. That's a lot for one individual. You're going to snap. It's hard when you have to do that every day for 162 days. Add Spring Training. It would be tough for anyone

MLB.com: The Hall of Fame vote is coming up with you on the ballot for the first time. How do you feel about that?

Bonds: I respect the Hall of Fame, don't get me wrong. I really, really, really respect the Hall of Fame. And I think we all do. I love the city of San Francisco and to me that's my Hall of Fame. I don't worry about it because I don't want to be negative about the way other people think it should be run. That's their opinion, and I'm not going to be negative. I know I'm going to be gone one day. If you want to keep me out, that's your business. My things are here in San Francisco. These are the people who love me. This is where I feel I belong. This is where I want to belong. If [the voters] want to put me in there, so be it, fine. If they don't, so be it, fine.

Bonds: No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be on the bus every day. I don't mind doing it once in a while. I don't mind going sometimes, but I don't want to go on the day-to-day grind. My mind could change when I start doing something. Maybe the guys might need me more out there. It's going to be based on how it is. I'm not begging for a job. If they don't like what I'm doing then get rid of me. I'm just saying that it would be a shame for what I know, to what I can give, to what I can offer, to let it go to waste or for me to get too old so I can't offer it anymore.

MLB.com: Where do the Giants stand in all this?

Bonds: We all basically agree on what we want to do. When you're behind closed doors communicating you want to keep things private and personal. To me, that's a good code of ethics. But we both have a good feeling about things. That's where it stands. Now where it goes? We could've had a good feeling at dinner and that's as far as it went. So there's no timeline. I just want to get back involved as soon as I can. I just want to help before it's too late. I can still hit. I can still show and tell. But that's the way I am. My dad was like that. Willie was like that. I'm hands on. If I can grab a bat at 48 years old and still do it, than son, you better not tell me you can't do it at 22 years old. If that's the Giants' choice not to hire me, it's OK. I'll still love them just the same.

Bonds: No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be on the bus every day. I don't mind doing it once in a while. I don't mind going sometimes, but I don't want to go on the day-to-day grind. My mind could change when I start doing something. Maybe the guys might need me more out there. It's going to be based on how it is. I'm not begging for a job. If they don't like what I'm doing then get rid of me. I'm just saying that it would be a shame for what I know, to what I can give, to what I can offer, to let it go to waste or for me to get too old so I can't offer it anymore.

i don't know how much you'd want to credit him for this, but bonds has tutored ryan howard for a short while now.

Yes, many consider it "cheating." But, for some inexplicable reason, it seems very few of those people consider greenies to be cheating, even in retrospect.

Second, many "cheaters" are not treated this way. Pettitte has been and continues to be the prime example. But Giambi is not a pariah and even ARod is not as reviled as Bonds and Clemens. However, I agree that even ARod may not get in the HoF.

Third, people are constantly lumping Sosa in with Bonds, Clemens, and McGwire although there's no real evidence he did anything.

As I've said before, if I had to put it down to one thing (and we don't have to do that), it's "betrayal." The writers were in Mac and Sammy's pocket. They loved the HR chase, the spurred it on, they were 12 years old again. Instead of being professionals and doing their job, they were in love. And hell hath no fury like a CHB scorned.

So it's not that the writers think they were "cheating" it's that the writers feel cheated. That's not the same thing. When business writers write about an Enron, they discuss how they cheated, they don't go on moralistic rants. (well, the vast majority of them)

But I still don't think we know how many are bright-liners, how many are adjusters, how many are "HoFer before/without the steroids" and how many are "innocent until proven guilty." Bonds and Clemens will give us a pretty good idea of that though I think.

In addition to Ryan Howard, when Bonds was with the Giants, there would be stories every spring training about how Bonds worked with some young hitter to try to help their plate discipline/swing plane. Most of those guys never amounted to anything because the Giants were so shitty at developing minor leaguers, but Bonds was definitely known as a guy who could show a young hitter a few things.

As I've said before, if I had to put it down to one thing (and we don't have to do that), it's "betrayal." The writers were in Mac and Sammy's pocket. They loved the HR chase, the spurred it on, they were 12 years old again. Instead of being professionals and doing their job, they were in love. And hell hath no fury like a CHB scorned.

And in Bonds's case hell hath no fury like a sportswriter that feels like the athlete is a big meanie being mean to them. Bonds admits it in his quote from #20. Wouldn't it be nice for a writer to admit that Bonds isn't worse than Hitler simply because he and the writer didn't get along?

What other qualified candidates were known for their irascible "F the writers" personality? John Franco got 4.6% in the same election as Brown, so we can precisely pinpoint the "one hand washes the other" quotient at 2.5% of the electorate.

Second, many "cheaters" are not treated this way. Pettitte has been and continues to be the prime example. But Giambi is not a pariah and even ARod is not as reviled as Bonds and Clemens. However, I agree that even ARod may not get in the HoF.

It's a matter of degrees. Rightly or wrongly, people seem to believe Pettitte that he used for a short while to recover from an injury, didn't get a big competitive boost, and is genuinely contrite. Then they look at Bonds and think he used copiously for years and destroyed a beloved record while acting like an ####### much of the time. There's no steroids deduction to be applied that keeps you under consideration if people hate you.

I'm not saying Bonds used, nor equating PED use with violating Rule 21. I'm saying what the BBWAA perceive as player transgressions need not have contributed to on-field success for them to be exclusionary offenses.

And vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on.

I think this has meme potential!

He was channelling his inner Mickey Rivers. ("Ain't no sense worrying about the things you got control over, 'cause if you got control over them, ain't no sense worrying. And ain't no sense worrying about the things you don't got control over, 'cause if you don't got control over them, ain't no sense worrying.")

What other qualified candidates were known for their irascible "F the writers" personality?

The most obvious one to me is Ted Williams - and the writers still voted him in with 93.4% his first year of eligibility. Ted even admitted later he was surprised he received that many votes as he was certain there were some writers that would screw with him the way they did in the MVP votes...

You have to vote on baseball the way baseball needs to be voted on. If you vote on your assumptions or what you believe or what you think might have been going on there, that’s your problem...It has nothing to do with what your opinion is...If that’s the case, you better go way, way back and start thinking about your opinions. If that’s how you feel life should be run, I would say then you run your Hall of Fame the way you want to run your Hall of Fame. That’s what I think. That’s my personal opinion. If you want to do the Hall of Fame the way the Hall of Fame is supposed to be done, then you make the right decision on that...

Uh, say what?

In this interview, many of Barry's responses are rambling, evasive, and misleading.

To heck with baseball, Barry's a born politician. He can say many words without ever answering the questions...

Rice only started getting serious support when he joined the media as a commentator.

Rice debuted with 29 percent of the vote, the kind of starting point that many have used toward eventual election. His only sizable bump in 15 years on the ballot was in 2000 (when he was serving the last of six seasons as a Red Sox hitting coach, three years before he began life as a talking head), when he jumped from 29 percent to 52 percent. Of course, that jump had almost nothing to do with Rice and everything to do with the 1999 Super Ballot, which featured Ryan, Brett, Yount and Fisk making their debuts and stealing votes from the backloggers. Take away that freak occurence, and Jim Ed had one of the most unspectacular climbs in Hall of Fame voting - just a slow, steady march up the ballot. There was no aha moments. Nothing that sparked a runaway freight train momentum.

If I was expecting a kids' miniature Ferrari racecar and an original Lionel train set and a two-week trip to Disneyland for Christmas, but Mom and Dad gave me a single Lego brick, I guess I'd have no choice but to play the hell out of my Lego brick.

In many ways, I think this is the heart of the B/media issue right here.

but I could've given the media a little more than I did at the time. Back then, I didn't think I could. But I also feel that the people around me could have given me some breathing room to make it easier. When you're just shoved out there by yourself all the time, I believe some people can do it. I was just not one of them. And I admit it, I wasn't one of them. I wasn't good at that. I wasn't good for the sole reason of the things I saw as I grew up with my father. And how my father and Willie were loved at one moment and then dropped off at some corner and told, "Good luck!" the next. I wasn't willing to subject myself to that and I wasn't willing to give them that. Now that I look back at it, it might have been a lot more fun if I had. It might have been good to do that.

Tora's long term image rehab plan for BB (I've been saying this for years, here and elsewhere. It can be done!)

1-Disappear post retirement for a few years until the furor dies down a bit. If you can do something dramatic like become a world class angler, by all means do so. Cycling works just fine here.
2-Slowly emerge back into the public eye-give a series of gracious interviews, admit faults on your behalf, be kind as opposed to antagonistic to the Knights of the Keyboard.
3-Get a small part time job back with the organization, spring training stuff preferably ala Koufax or Williams
(3A-Bonus points for championing an oppressed group during the HoF speech, taking the moral high ground.)
4-Write a book about hitting that becomes the new standard. Please, please, please sit down with Maddux and do a pitcher/hitter book ala Gibson and Reggie.
5-Become a spring training regular,hit all-star games and World Series, dispensing quotes and advice for the next few decades while waiting for the reporters who hated you to retire. As they fade, the new guys will look back on the stats and be blown away and slowly accomplishments will begin to overcome reputation.
6-Don't do anything stupid. No OJ move's here, please.
7-Ride of into the sunset as a GOMoBB (Grand Old Man of baseball)

When you spend pretty much your entire life treating other people around you like total #### when you're on the way up, it rarely works out very well when you become a transparent phony and start feigning being Mr. Nice Guy when you're on the way down and you suddenly need those other people for something. You really think that people can't see through that sort of thing? Puuuhlease.

1-Disappear post retirement for a few years until the furor dies down a bit. If you can do something dramatic like become a world class angler, by all means do so. Cycling works just fine here.

Yeah, no one would question what someone who became a world-class cyclist in his late 40s was taking. I think you had the right idea the first time with the fishing. (And we know he's patient!)

(3A-Bonus points for championing an oppressed group during the HoF speech, taking the moral high ground.)

It would be amazing if, after finally securing baseball's highest honor after decades of struggle and controversy, Barry Bonds saw it as his big chance to finally proclaim that Sadaharu Oh and Buzz Arlett should be in the Hall of Fame too.

6-Don't do anything stupid. No OJ move's here, please.

I can't argue with this.

Seriously, though, I wasn't following the perjury trial much because I didn't particularly care, but if this interview reflects Bonds' standard speaking style, it makes it much sillier to me to think that he was legally prosecuted for giving rambling and unclear answers.

Dick Allen is complicated. I think it's fair to say that in general the press hated him and that this might have cost him votes. It's unclear though.

It's impossible to know how much Allen's reputation hurt him with the voters, but the main reason he's not in the HOF is simply cuz his career totals just don't warrant it. The best arguments in his favor are newer stats like WAR and OPS+ that didn't exist when he hit the ballot.

Everything I have ever heard about him is he treats people - other than the press - really well. It is the press he does not like and that feeling is returned.

Actually there's a lot of stories from old college teammates and other folks from Bonds youth that pretty much say, "Yeah, he was a world class dick."
That said, I think he mellowed as he aged, especially once he got to SanFran, and that his behavior changed quite a bit.

And again, I see lots of his image problems as being based in pretty simple stuff. Take a uber-talented, bright as hell, hypersensitive kid, give him an angry alcoholic father who sees most of his problems as originating in the press and pours his hatred out in diatribes to said kid, toss in a Godfather who also is a pretty bitter guy, and it's easy to see why Bonds had troubles with the press in his youth. He was highly suspicious, very guarded, sometimes antagonistic and generally treated them as adversaries, much to his detriment.
The shame is that he can be a charming guy.